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Archive for the ‘sorana cirstea’ Category

Some interesting results from a tournament so loaded it is traditionally total carnage. First up, Aravane Rezai beat Caroline Wozniacki in the Battle of the New Outfits:

Wozniacki’s loss, as defending champion, will put JJ up to no. 3 next week, I hear.

Things did not go a lot better for the almost identically-named Aleksandra Wozniak, who lost in straight sets to plucky young thing Heather Watson in the Battle of Being Nearly the Sole Hope of Your Nation:

C’mon Tim!

The Battle of the Belgians was won by Kim Clijsters in emphatic style, downing the somewhat floundering Yanina Wickmayer 61 61 after returning from her foot injury:

Francesca Schiavone followed in the footsteps of last year’s French Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in losing in the first round, bundled out by Sorana Cirstea in the Battle of Career Highs at Roland Garros:

Sveta herself, meanwhile, survived the Battle of the Russians, beating Alisa Kleybanova 46 75 62. Then she announced she was playing doubles with Rezai at Wimbledon via twitter. That whacky Sveta.

In younger generation news, Victoria Azarenka took out Agnieszka Radwanska in the Battle of Can I Get Past the Wimbledon Quarters This Year? No:

But she does have amazing hair.

And in the Battle of the Careers Plagued By Injury, Elena Baltacha was left standing for once as Li Na, probably exhausted from her efforts in Edgbaston last week, retired after winning the first set, 76(6):

And that was your WTA wackiness for the day.

Meanwhile, on the ATP side, James Ward and Feliciano Lopez duked it out fiercely to see who could confound expectations the most. Ward looked to have an unassailable lead on that front, as he stunned everyone by not only winning the first set but going up a break in the second. Not to be outdone, however, Lopez abruptly retired at 4-5 down, denying Ward the chance to explode spectactularly when serving for it. A Pyrrhic victory at best, one feels.

Main draw action was underway in Dubai today and there have already been some good and not so good results. To the eternal grief of fanboys/girls everywhere, Sorana Cirstea and Maria Kirilenko have already lost, to fourteenth seed Francesca Schiavone and qualifier Regina Kulikova respectively.

Come to Romania, ladies and gentlemen, where wild animals will steal your fruit and they have some quite good tennis players. Sixth-seeded Team Romania upset the Australians in both senses of the word in the first session of the Hopman Cup to take an early lead in Group A.

Sam Stosur looked to be well in charge of her match against Sorana Cirstea, outplaying the Romanian to take the first set 63, but Cirstea’s tenacity paid off in the second set and Stosur eventually wobbled just enough to give up the match. Lleyton Hewitt evened things up by coming from behind to beat Victor Hanescu 36 63 76(2), but the visitors took the mixed 75 61 and the tie with it.

If they would just hold the damn thing in a part of the world that’s in a civilised timezone, it would be the best tournament ever. Because get this: in addition to Hewitt and Stosur for Australia and Andreev and Dementieva for Russia, Romania will be represented in the 2010 Hopman Cup by Sorana Cirstea and Victor Hanescu, while Sabine Lisicki will be returning and this time accompanied by Philipp Kohlschreiber. I also seem to have missed the news that Melanie Oudin and John Isner will be representing for the U.S.A.

I am completely stoked about this. In case you’ve missed the memo, my love for Licky is rapidly reaching Momo proportions (and when will she play Hopman Cup with Kuznetsova and win the whole damn thing for Eurasia, eh?). And I’m anything but unfond of Sorana and Melanie Oudin as well. There’s a little less wattage for me on the male side, but they’re all fun players capable of great tennis. And there are three more teams to be confirmed. Can’t wait!

So I’m starting to think Anna-Lena Groenefeld has it in for me. She beat my favourite player in Seoul, Sorana Cirstea, who also happened to be the fourth seed.

Other than that notable exception, all the seeds progressed, with Medina Garrigues, Schiavone, Kleybanova, Pavlyuchenkova, Dushevina and Bammer recording victories at the expense of Urszula Radwanska, Katarina Srebotnik and Ekaterina Makarova among others. Magdalena Rybarikova knocked out last week’s Guangzhou finalist Alberta Brianti, and unseeded defending champion Maria Kirilenko had a tough time of it against Sophie Ferguson but came through in three sets.

In Tashkent, seeds Shvedova, Mayr and Niculescu all recorded straight set victories, with third seed Raluca Olaru falling to Ekaterina Bychkova. Oh, and two locals – Akgul Amandurova and wildcard Nigina Abduraimova – both won. So that was nice.